An ad hoc committee organized to come up with ideas for making the Alvord Lake entrance to Golden Gate Park more inviting, had its second meeting last week.

Attendees included three Park Station Police Officers, three Rec & Parks employees (and one retired Rec & Park employee), two art students from the Academy of Art, one representative of Supervisor Olague’s office, and eight neighborhood residents.

The art students presented their class projects which had the site at Alvord Lake as a “challenge project” for them. Both projects, while interesting, were focused on architectural enhancements that seemed to go beyond what the group is seeking.

The officer representing Captain Corrales outlined to the group the complexity of the social scene now existing at the site, and reminded us that not everyone there is selling drugs. One officer reported on the problem created by the garden between the pillars, which serves as a hiding place for drugs and seating. He suggested that the garden be removed and an information kiosk/booth be installed.

Most of the resident comments and ideas dealt with landscaping alternatives for the area, and the idea of an information kiosk/booth met with positive interest.

The next meeting of the group (as yet unnamed) will be at the site on Saturday, October 27 at noon. This is the normal work day of a group of volunteers who regularly work with Rec & Park gardeners from 9-12. Bring your work gloves and ideas!

Kezar Gardens Artist-in Residence Soumyaa Kapil Behrens has created a website with words and pictures (and videos) that give a flavor of what it's like at Kezar Gardens, and some of the issues about our recycling center. We encourage you to visit Kezar Gardens at 780 Frederick Street, and also to visit the website, at kezargardens.com. Here are some samples from the website:

Human Be-In Then and Now

Sit down with Diamond Dave and Soumyaa Kapil Behrens as they discuss the history of the Hippie Revolution and the first Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in 1967 on Mutiny Radio. (Watch the video here). Diamond Dave was there, at the start of the movement, and will be streaming his show on Mutiny Radio live from the event this weekend.

The conversation goes on all weekend. Kick off the dialogue with the local band Classical Revolution 3pm Friday September 14th at ground zero: 780 Frederick Street. Make some love, make some community, make some gardens, and make some history while you are at it.

The Human Be-In kicked off as a “gathering of the tribes” in January of 1967. This weekend, it will be re-created by a group called the Space TranSFormers. They hope to raise awareness about the outrageous eviction of Kezar Gardens, the redevelopment plan for Hayes Valley Farm and the removal of the Free Farm in San Francisco. They will openly protest the leadership of the Recreation and Parks Department, namely Phil Ginsburg who has been heavily criticized for pandering to private interests regarding park land governance.

In May, a group of recent college graduates participating in the City Hall Fellows program, a fellowship program that connects recent college graduates with city government to study social problems, released a report on the implementation of San Francisco’s sit/lie law. On August 15, the Fellows presented their report to the Haight community. The report showed that Park Station is citing more people for sit/lie than any other police station in the City, that the people who receive citations are not receiving useful referrals to services and that the City is not tracking whether sit/lie-related interactions with SFPD is actually directing people to services, and that SFPD and the City are not accurately tracking the number of sit/lie citations issued by SFPD.

As the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator at Homeless Youth Alliance (HYA), I have some opinions on sit/lie that I’d like to share with the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council.

Sitting and lying should not be considered criminal behavior. The appropriate response to street homelessness is the provision of culturally appropriate outreach and connection with appropriate services. This is the only response that will result in a decrease in street homelessness.

Criminalization policies targeted at the behavior of homeless people have not, are not, and will never be an effective tool for solving homelessness.

The criminal justice system is not an appropriate vehicle for delivering services and support to people without homes.

City resources would be better spent in strengthening the service system (substance abuse treatment, harm reduction, mental health treatment, peer-based outreach, safe supportive housing) for homeless youth than on the enforcement of homeless criminalization policies like sit/lie.

At HYA, we know how to end homelessness among our youth. Peer-based services delivered by culturally-competent outreach workers help to engage our participants, often regarded as the most “difficult to serve” of the homeless youth in San Francisco, connecting them with vital housing, counseling, mental health, and drug treatment services. Access to these vital services is what helps end homelessness among our participants.

Some Suggestions

So, what are some constructive ideas for reducing homelessness in our community? I’d like to offer some suggestions that, unlike sit/lie, are targeted towards providing the services that homeless people need rather than criminalizing the behavior that is a side-effect of homelessness and poverty.

San Francisco needs more housing affordable to low-income people (

Homeless San Franciscans need 24-hour access to shelter as well as access to basic necessities like food, toilets, showers, clothing, and hygiene items.

Recognize the unique service needs of the homeless youth in the Haight and strengthen programs that help hard-to-serve populations who fall through the cracks and don’t fit in to traditional service programs.

The August edition of the Sunset Beacon/Richmond Review has an in depth story on the Kezar Gardens eviction. Written by Tom Pendergast, the story quotes from Recreation and Parks Department staff testimony at the December 2nd 2010 RPD Commission hearing on a concept design for a "garden resource center" and combines it with excerpts from a lengthy interview Pendergast had with Kezar Gardens director Ed Dunn.

The article outlines the RPD's dastardly, scorched earth campaign to keep the bottom one percent from getting money for recyclables. The reader will be floored by the amazing cynicism of RPD's efforts to replace a garden with a garden, destroying ten green jobs while abusing City funds.

Mark your calendar for September 13th at 7 PM at Park Branch Library (1833 Page Street) for it will be your first major opportunity to learn and discuss local ballot measures for this November's election.

While we all know more than we ever wanted about Mitt, his dog and his pony we are far less well informed about local ballot measures that will, arguable, have more direct impact our daily lives. From profound ( Props C, E and F) to simply symbolic (G), from important (A and B) to not so important (D) all local ballot measures will be discussed.

Taken as a whole the seven local measures, while fewer than usual, will have real impacts. The City College parcel tax ( A) and Park Bond (B) measures are not simply funding measures but also are imbedded with real policy issues. HANC opposes B and lays out its reasons in a separate article in this issue of the Voice.

Propositions C, the Housing Trust Fund, E, the new gross receipt business tax and F, a policy statement on the future of the Hetch Hetchy water and power system, have long lasting importance and involve billions of public dollars. These three are not trivial issues and you need to understand them. HANC will lay out its support for Proposition C ( see article in this issue) and has invited speakers on E and F.

It wont be until late September before the Comical addresses these issues ( if then) and the various local political blogs are all caught up in the personality slug fest of the Supervisors race, so HANC is the best place to begin an understanding of the issues on the ballot.

Kezar Gardens, our combined community garden, recycling center, and native plant nursery, at 780 Frederick Street, remains open despite the misguided efforts of the City’s Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) to evict HANC from the site. Eviction proceedings began on December 2, 2010, after a meeting of the Recreation and Parks Commission (RPC). The agenda item at that meeting was to approve the design for a community garden, with no mention of HANC’s recycling center. Yet, despite overwhelming public support for our recycling center, RPC voted to approve the plan, and also indicated that inherent in the approval was the eviction of our recycling center. RPD served us with a 90-day eviction notice within a few days, which led to an eviction lawsuit filed on March 8, 2011.

On that same day, the Board of Supervisors passed a “Resolution requesting the Recreation and Parks Department and the Department of the Environment collaborate to establish a comprehensive Parks recycling program using the expertise, volunteer base, and facilities of the HANC Recycling Center in Golden Gate Park, for the Department of the Environment to establish and Independent Recycling Center Master Plan, and requesting the Recreation and Parks Department to rescind the eviction of the HANC Recycling Center from Golden Gate Park.” Click here for the full text of the resolution.

Despite this resolution and despite a letter from HANC’s attorney to RPD explaining that the eviction notice was served on the wrong day to effect an eviction, RPD proceeded with its eviction lawsuit. RPD must have eventually realized its error, because on May 26, 2011, (through its attorney, the City Attorney’s Office), it dismissed the eviction. But that’s far from the end of the story.

Rob shared his perspective on the conditions that have become a pattern of success for initiating and maintaining a successful urban agriculture site. He suggests having a track record of success, a "champion" or connection with a public official, and support from a local organization from the immediate area around the site are crucial to success.

He also recommends having people in public positions or those with strong opinions about urban agriculture to visit the site where they can see and reframe their expectations.

Pancho shared the story of the Gill Tract and the astonishing and passionate community support for maintaining food production for people on that site and not in favor of developing the site with housing and grocery store. He maintains that love and supportive compassion for all parties involved will be critical for having urban agriculture reaching its potential of creating community and connection.

Ed Dunn shared the latest update on the status of the Kezar Gardens and Ecology Center and took questions from those gathered as to what they can do to support the site and prevent it from being evicted by San Francisco's Recreation and Parks Department.

Register for any of the classes below by calling (415) 731-5267, by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or register in the garden on the day of class. All classes will be offered at Garden for the Environment, a half-acre organic demonstration garden in San Francisco on 7th Avenue at Lawton Street. You can join Garden for the Environment or find out more at www.gardenfortheenvironment.org

URBAN COMPOSTING

Date: Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Time: 10am - 12pm

Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco

Cost: Free

Give your summer garden a boost that will guarantee vibrant colors and tasty veggies for the months to follow! Aside from encouraging beneficial soil organisms and conserving a non-renewable resource, composting makes an excellent fertilizer that releases nutrients slowly at a rate which the plants can use them. This fun, hands-on class teaches methods for backyard and worm composting for home and community gardens. Come learn what you can do to improve your garden and prevent organic waste from ending up in the landfill! Rot on!

GROW YOUR OWN FOOD! Seasonal Organic Vegetable Gardening in July

Date: Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Time: 10am - 12noon

Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco

Instructor: Carey Craddock, Organic Gardening Instructor

Cost: $25 or $15 for GFE Members

Year-round vegetable gardening is integral to creating a foodsystem whose values reflect seasonality, locality and clean food. To take full advantage of the unique gardening climate in San Francisco, it’s important to know your vegetable garden’s needs each month. Join GFE and local gardener Carey Craddock as we take a closer look at what to do in your garden in July to ensure you reap a harvest that will afford you Victory Gardener status. Its summer in San Francisco! Which means one thing - FOG! This month will focus on garden troubleshooting, fertilization, managing weeds, as well as a tour of what’s growing at the GFE in July. Join us on the 2nd Saturday of every month to learn seasonal tips for year-round vegetable garden! Bring on the bounty!

GROWING EDIBLES IN CONTAINERS

Date: Saturday, July 21st, 2012

Time: 10am - 12pm

Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco

Instructor: Johanna Silver, Sunset Magazine Test Garden Coordinator

Cost: $25 or $15 for GFE Members

Are you thinking farming your fire-escape, tending herbs on your windowsill or growing edibles on your patio? This class is for you! Learn how to choose the right pot, the right soil, and most importantly – the right crops for your containers. Instructor Johanna Silver experiments with all sorts of containers in Sunset Magazine’s test garden, from homemade self-watering ones, to galvanized steel, to turning straw bales into planting space. Yes, you too can grow food in even the smallest urban spaces!

FROM GLEANING FRUIT TO HOME MADE JAM

Date: Saturday, July 28th, 2012

Time: 10am - 12pm

Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco

Instructor: Lauren Anderson, Founder, Produce to the People

Cost: $25 or $15 for GFE Members

Maybe you've got a prolific plum tree, or a friend up north with an apple orchard, or you just tend to go overboard when strawberry season hits at the farmer's market? This workshop will discuss how to make the most of seasonal fruit by preserving it into jam! We'll cover the basics of making homemade jam with a focus on making jam on the fly- adapting recipes for surplus fruit and adding your own special touches with ingredients from your garden and cupboard. We'll talk about fruit selection and preparation, adding herbs and spices, sweeteners and pectin, and canning vs. freezing. The workshop will conclude with a jam tasting and all participants will receive a jam how-to pamphlet. (Images: Produce to the People)

URBAN BEEKEEPING!

Part III - Honey Extraction

Date: Saturday, August 18th, 2012

Time: 10am - 12noon

Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco

Instructor: Paul Koski, San Francisco Beekeepers Association

Cost: $25 or $15 for GFE Members

Join GFE and local beekeeping instructor Paul Koski of the San Francisco Beekeeper Association for a very hands on Part III of our Urban Beekeeping Series. If all goes well, an urban honeybee colony should produce about 30-40 lbs of excess honey by the fall of each year. This workshop will discuss the factors that affect honey production, honey extraction and timing, and how to assess how much honey a colony will need for winter. This workshop will also present the varied methods of honey harvesting and discuss the pros and cons of each. Depending on the amount of honey produced in the GFE hives and how it is stored in the honeycomb, we will demonstrate several honey harvesting methods including cutting the honeycomb into chunks, crushing and straining, and uncapping and extracting the honey frames. Come join us, it is going to bee sweet!

Join HANC, community gardeners, and the urban agriculture community, at our general meeting on Thursday, July 12, beginning at 7:00 pm, downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street.

Within the last year, community garden and urban agriculture sites in San Francisco, including the Free Farm (at Gough and Eddy), Hayes Valley Farm (at Oak and Laguna) and the Kezar Gardens and Ecology Center (at 780 Frederick), along with the more high profile Gill Tract (on UC Berekley property in Albany in East Bay), have all had to reckon with the uncertainty of tenure and permissible use for growing food for people. Each of these sites has its own story of impending change of land use, displacement or eviction of farming activities in favor of housing and commercial development except in the case of Kezar Gardens and Ecology Center which is being faced with the possibility of being evicted in favor of another community garden. At the HANC general membership meeting on Thursday July 12th we will hear from community members involved with these sites and learn more about the current status of these sites and solicit discussion from members about land tenure and community gardens and urban agriculture.

The Free Farm is currently on a vacant lot owned by St. Paulus church at the corner of Gough and Eddy. Earlier this year, St. Paulus signed an agreement with Maracor Development to go ahead with a plan of selling the land to them and having it developed for market rate housing and a new church building for St. Paulus. The Free Farm has some 24-36 months until “entitlement” or when the city gives final approval for the building project. This will include an environmental impact report, community meetings with the neighbors, coming up with a design, and dealing with all legal and building issues. Once entitlement is reached the church signs the property over to the developer. Maracorp Development has required that the Free Farm be removed from the site 6 months before entitlement happens. The Free Farm is currently searching for a new location (or locations) in the city.